Why Did Jesus Have to Die?

It’s an age old question, but one that needs to be asked, contemplated, and meditated upon by every generation of Christians–indeed every Christian, “Why did Jesus have to die?” The weight it bears cannot be measured or quantified. It’s importance cannot be overstated. To put it positively, what did Jesus seek to accomplish, what goals and aims were fulfilled? What problems did Jesus seek to rectify and remove, to put it negatively.

It’s a question I have had to wrestle with ever since I started to read N. T. Wright. Before reading his work the model Christus Victor wasn’t something I took seriously. Instead I dressed it up within the framework of another model, namely penal substitution.

But Wright has forced me to ask the question a new, “Why did Jesus have to die?” My normal, penal substitution/neo-Calvinistic, conservative evangelical answer would have been along this narrative. Man has sinned and transgressed God’s law. Because of this sinners deserve and will get the just sentence of hell–eternal conscious torment. Jesus came, lived a perfect life and did not violate God’s moral law. He was crucified on the cross and raised from the dead. God exchanged man’s sin for Jesus’ perfect obedience. Jesus’ crucifixion was him suffering God’s wrath–hell–in dying, the wrath for the sins of those who are in Christ. He was raised to prove, justify, vindicate his penal substitutionary death–proved that Jesus’ death did satisfy God’s justice. It was our proof of purchase, our receipt from God to show we are going to heaven. In short, the reason why Jesus died was to take away my sin so that I will go to heaven when I die if I believe in him.

Wright has forced me to grapple with the historical picture of Jesus. To come to terms with the narratives the Gospels have painted of Jesus and the meaning to Jesus’ death within those narratives. That Jesus was born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth. He ministered three years and taught about the “kingdom of God,” painting a picture of what it will look like while implicitly critiquing Israel for failing to be that picture as they were called to be. He was hailed a king on Sunday; condemned and died as a rebel king on Friday, and raised to life on Sunday. In short, Jesus’ death was the climax to Jesus’ ministry to bring about the kingdom of God here on earth.

The challenge is how to put these two narrative strands together in a way the honors both. Are the Gospels Passion narratives (another name for the story of Jesus’ final week on earth, his time in Jerusalem ending in his death) with extended introductions? Or are they something else? How do we take the picture of Jesus in the Gospels and put it together with what Paul and the others say in the epistles? It’s the end all, be all question at the heart of the Christianity. It’s the question I look forward to answering with my high school students this Sunday.

N. T. Wright likens this question and the event of the crucifixion to some of the ancient maps. Like these maps with Jerusalem being the center of the world, so is the cross of Jesus the center of Christianity. How these are put together determines everything.